Framework adds human knowledge to AI decisions to improve outcomes.
problem Conflict between AI recommendations and human insights.
method Develops a framework for integrating human knowledge as a guardrail for AI decisions.
result Human knowledge can improve AI decisions, especially in specific pitfalls.
New algorithm tracks COVID-19 outbreak phases.
problem Decision-making in pandemic data.
method Developed a new algorithm (BLLR) based on decision theory.
result Demonstrated ability to track different phases of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Algorithm learns decision trees from noisy data.
problem Learning stochastic decision trees from corrupted samples.
method Quasipolynomial-time algorithm for adversarial noise.
result Returns a hypothesis with error within 2η+ε of optimal. New algorithms for privately learning decision lists and halfspaces.
problem Private learning of decision lists and halfspaces.
method Differentially private algorithms for PAC and online models.
result Private algorithms match or surpass non-private guarantees.
New research shows machine-assisted decisions can still be unfair even when the algorithm is fair.
problem Ensuring fairness in decisions made with machine-assisted human input.
method Formal model and lab experiment to analyze how machine predictions affect human decisions.
result Excluding information about protected groups from machine predictions can increase disparities.
A fundamental question for companies with large amount of logged data is: How to use such logged data together with incoming streaming data to make good decisions? Many companies currently make decisions via online A/B tests, but wrong decisions during testing hurt users' experiences and cause irreversible damage. A ty…
Paper introduces algorithms for private decision tree learning.
problem Private decision tree learning in distributed settings.
method Proposes DP-TopDown, NoisyCounts, and LocalRNM.
result First utility guarantees for private decision tree learning.
dtControl uses decision trees to represent controllers efficiently and explainably.
problem Representing controllers concisely and explainably.
method dtControl uses decision tree learning algorithms to represent controllers. Novel techniques for determinizing controllers are introduced.
result Novel techniques for determinizing controllers during decision tree construction are extremely efficient, yielding small decision trees.
Designs algorithms to assist humans without affecting their decisions.
problem Algorithms often fail to improve human decisions.
method Formalizes algorithm design using potential outcomes framework and monotonicity assumption.
result Derives minimax optimal recommendation algorithms for limited data.
Decision tree algorithms have been among the most popular algorithms for interpretable (transparent) machine learning since the early 1980's. The problem that has plagued decision tree algorithms since their inception is their lack of optimality, or lack of guarantees of closeness to optimality: decision tree algorithm…
New algorithm solves uncertain Markov decision processes using Wasserstein uncertainty.
problem Solving Markov decision processes with uncertain transition probabilities.
method Distributionally robust Q-learning algorithm for Wasserstein uncertainty. result Convergence of the algorithm proved and demonstrated with real data.
In this paper, we propose a decision making algorithm intended for automated vehicles that negotiate with other possibly non-automated vehicles in intersections. The decision algorithm is separated into two parts: a high-level decision module based on reinforcement learning, and a low-level planning module based on mod…
New algorithm learns decision trees faster than before.
problem Properly learning decision trees in polynomial time.
method Membership query algorithm with nO(loglogn) time complexity. result Achieved faster learning time for decision trees.
New framework for contesting algorithmic decisions, not just explaining them.
problem Helping individuals review and correct erroneous algorithmic decisions.
method Operationalized contestability as a natural complement to explainable AI (XAI), identifying three types of evidence for reversal.
result Existing EU legislation already grants individuals legal rights to contest algorithmic decisions.
Improved model-free reinforcement learning with decision-estimation coefficient.
problem Interactive decision making, including structured bandits and reinforcement learning.
method Combining Estimation-to-Decisions with optimistic estimation to achieve better regret bounds.
result Regret bounds for model-free reinforcement learning with value function approximation.
An online decision-making algorithm using stochastic gradient descent for big data.
problem Efficiently updating decision rules in online decision making with big data.
method Stochastic gradient descent for online updates, asymptotic normality of estimators.
result Asymptotic normality of parameter and value estimators, enabling statistical inference.
New algorithms optimize decision rules in strategic scenarios, minimizing prediction risk and incentivizing better outcomes.
problem Strategic agents manipulate features to improve outcomes, complicating decision-making models.
method Efficient algorithms for learning decision rules that minimize prediction risk, incentivize better outcomes, and estimate true model coefficients.
result Optimal decision rules can be learned through testing and observing agent responses, circumventing hardness results.
Framework uses human judgment to distinguish algorithmically indistinguishable cases.
problem Clarifying human-AI collaboration in prediction and decision tasks.
method Integrates human judgment to distinguish algorithmically indistinguishable cases.
result Improves performance of any feasible algorithmic predictor.
A new fairness metric for decision-making algorithms, conditioning on known fair variables.
problem Fairness issues in decision-making systems.
method Conditional fairness metric, Derivable Conditional Fairness Regularizer (DCFR), adversarial representation.
result Traditional fairness notations are special cases of the new conditional fairness notation.
New algorithms achieve decision calibration without sample complexity dependent on feature dimension.
problem Achieving decision calibration for nonlinear loss functions with polynomial sample complexity.
method Developed smooth relaxation of decision calibration, enabling dimension-free algorithms.
result Efficient algorithms post-process predictors to satisfy decision calibration without worsening accuracy.
Decision trees are an extremely popular machine learning technique. Unfortunately, overfitting in decision trees still remains an open issue that sometimes prevents achieving good performance. In this work, we present a novel approach for the construction of decision trees that avoids the overfitting by design, without…
The construction of efficient and effective decision trees remains a key topic in machine learning because of their simplicity and flexibility. A lot of heuristic algorithms have been proposed to construct near-optimal decision trees. ID3, C4.5 and CART are classical decision tree algorithms and the split criteria they…
New learning process for neural classifiers simplifies decision weights.
problem Training decision layer weights in neural classifiers.
method Choosing appropriate loss functions and solving constrained optimization problems.
result A new learning process for pre-decision weights that is simple and effective.
This work presents an approach to automatically induction for non-greedy decision trees constructed from neural network architecture. This construction can be used to transfer weights when growing or pruning a decision tree, allowing non-greedy decision tree algorithms to automatically learn and adapt to the ideal arch…
Decision forests learn to model text by evaluating categorical-set conditions.
problem Decision forests cannot directly model text features.
method Defined and learned conditions for categorical-set features, enabling efficient text modeling.
result Decision forests can now directly model text features.
Societies often rely on human experts to take a wide variety of decisions affecting their members, from jail-or-release decisions taken by judges and stop-and-frisk decisions taken by police officers to accept-or-reject decisions taken by academics. In this context, each decision is taken by an expert who is typically …
Machine learning algorithms are now frequently used in sensitive contexts that substantially affect the course of human lives, such as credit lending or criminal justice. This is driven by the idea that `objective' machines base their decisions solely on facts and remain unaffected by human cognitive biases, discrimina…
New decision-theoretic calibration error metric improves prediction reliability.
problem Improving the reliability of predictions for decision-making.
method Proposed Calibration Decision Loss (CDL) and an efficient algorithm to achieve near-optimal CDL.
result Near-optimal CDL guarantees vanishing payoff loss from miscalibration.
In many healthcare settings, intuitive decision rules for risk stratification can help effective hospital resource allocation. This paper introduces a novel variant of decision tree algorithms that produces a chain of decisions, not a general tree. Our algorithm, α-Carving Decision Chain (ACDC), sequentially carves o…
HL algorithms improve resource allocation in cloud environments.
problem Sequential decision-making under uncertainty with exogenous variables.
method HL algorithms leverage exogenous variable samples to infer counterfactual consequences.
result HL algorithms outperform classic methods and reinforcement learning in resource allocation.
In most real-world settings such as recommender systems, finance, and healthcare, collecting useful information is costly and requires an active choice on the part of the decision maker. The decision-maker needs to learn simultaneously what observations to make and what actions to take. This paper incorporates the info…
Most decision tree induction algorithms are based on a greedy top-down recursive partitioning strategy for tree growth. In this paper, we propose several methods for induction of decision trees and their ensembles based on evolutionary algorithms. The main difference of our approach is using real-valued vector represen…
Transform ANNs into interpretable decision trees.
problem Lack of interpretability in ANNs.
method Developed two MDT algorithms: EC-DT and Extended C-Net.
result Extended C-Net generates the most compact and effective trees.
Develops an actor-critic algorithm for risk-sensitive Markov decision processes.
problem Risk-sensitive cost criterion in Markov decision processes.
method Actor-critic algorithm with function approximation.
result Asymptotic convergence of the actor-critic algorithm.
In Interactive Machine Learning (IML), we iteratively make decisions and obtain noisy observations of an unknown function. While IML methods, e.g., Bayesian optimization and active learning, have been successful in applications, on real-world systems they must provably avoid unsafe decisions. To this end, safe IML algo…
Boosted decision trees enjoy popularity in a variety of applications; however, for large-scale datasets, the cost of training a decision tree in each round can be prohibitively expensive. Inspired by ideas from the multi-arm bandit literature, we develop a highly efficient algorithm for computing exact greedy-optimal d…
We summarize the potential impact that the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation will have on the routine use of machine learning algorithms. Slated to take effect as law across the EU in 2018, it will restrict automated individual decision-making (that is, algorithms that make decisions based on user…
New algorithms for fast online decision making using neural networks and martingale posteriors.
problem Online sequential decision making under uncertainty.
method Martingale posterior neural networks for fast online learning and decision making.
result Achieves competitive performance-speed trade-offs in non-stationary contextual bandits and Bayesian optimization.
The study assesses the relative value of prediction in algorithmic decision making.
problem Improving welfare through better predictions versus other policy levers.
method Theoretical analysis of statistical models.
result Simple conditions determining the relative value of prediction.
New complexity measure for interactive learning reduces regret to near-optimal levels.
problem Challenges in sample-efficient, adaptive learning algorithms for interactive decision making.
method Introduces the Decision-Estimation Coefficient and the Estimation-to-Decisions (E2D) principle.
result Unified algorithm design principle E2D achieves optimal sample-efficient learning.
We evaluate the folk wisdom that algorithmic decision rules trained on data produced by biased human decision-makers necessarily reflect this bias. We consider a setting where training labels are only generated if a biased decision-maker takes a particular action, and so "biased" training data arise due to discriminato…
Optimizes portfolio construction using Bayesian methods and variational techniques.
problem Balancing reward and risk in portfolio construction.
method Bayesian decision-theoretic formulation, saddle-point problem, variational Bayes relaxation, efficient algorithm, provable convergence.
result Proves statistical consistency of proposed decision with optimal Bayesian decision.
IDS algorithm optimizes sequential decisions in various monitoring settings.
problem Optimizing sequential decisions in complex monitoring scenarios.
method Information-directed sampling (IDS) algorithm for linear partial monitoring.
result IDS achieves nearly worst-case rate optimality in finite-action games.
Safe autonomous decisions made with machine learning predictions using Conformal Decision Theory.
problem Safe decisions from imperfect machine learning predictions.
method Conformal Decision Theory framework for producing safe decisions.
result Safe decisions with provable statistical guarantees of low risk.
Machine learning based decision making systems are increasingly affecting humans. An individual can suffer an undesirable outcome under such decision making systems (e.g. denied credit) irrespective of whether the decision is fair or accurate. Individual recourse pertains to the problem of providing an actionable set o…
Transformers learn to make decisions in new contexts from offline data.
problem Understanding when and how transformers can perform in-context reinforcement learning.
method Theoretical framework analyzing supervised pretraining for ICRL, including algorithm distillation and decision-pretrained transformers.
result Transformers can efficiently approximate optimal reinforcement learning algorithms for various environments.
New algorithms detect anomalies in processes with minimal delay.
problem Sequentially selecting and observing processes to identify anomalies.
method Developed centralized and decentralized anomaly detection algorithms using reinforcement learning.
result Minimizes delay in decision making while identifying anomalies accurately.
New approach to algorithmic fairness for human-AI collaboration considers compliance with human decisions.
problem Current fairness approaches assume perfect human compliance, but real-world compliance is often poor.
method Defines compliance-robustly fair algorithms and proposes an optimization strategy to improve fairness.
result Algorithmic recommendations can improve fairness even if humans do not fully comply with fair algorithms.